Derek Prince was educated in Britain at Eton
and King's College, Cambridge. A catalogue of resources and
products can be ordered from DPMI, P.O. Box 19501, Charlotte NC
25219-9501 Phone: (704)357-3556.

Reports have been coming in from Christian groups in widely
separated locations of what appears to be a strange new
phenomenon. Believers of different ages and widely different
social backgrounds are being overcome by prolonged outbursts of
laughter which have no obvious cause. Sometimes they may also act
as if they are drunk. Often this laughter appears to be
contagious. Those who have experienced it apparently
"transmit" it to others. Large groups may be seized by
it simultaneously.

Both ministers and lay people from a wide range of
denominations have been affected in this way. Some testify that
it has had a stimulating effect on their faith and has brought
them closer to the Lord. On the other hand, there are those who
are skeptical and view this kind of experience as a deception of
the enemy. As a result of all this, I am frequently being asked
whether I believe that the Holy Spirit at times produces in
people prolonged, exuberant and apparently causeless laughter.
"I have to believe it," I reply, "because that is
how I was saved more than 50 years ago."

In the summer of 1941, I was part of a medical unit of the
British Army billeted in a hotel on the North Bay of Scarborough
in Yorkshire. The hotel had been gutted of all its furniture and
fittings. Our "beds" were simply straw mattresses on
the floor. While in Scarborough I had some brief contacts with
Pentecostal Christians, who confronted me for the first time with
my need to receive Christ as my personal Savior. At that point in
my life I was a nominal Anglican, who never voluntarily attended
church. I had never before heard of Pentecostals, and I had no
idea what they believed or what kind of people they were.

About nine months previously, however, I had started to read
the Bible through from beginning to end. I had no religious
motive. I regarded the Bible merely as a work of philosophy. As a
professional philosopher, I felt it was my academic duty to find
out what the Bible had to say. At this point I had come as far as
the book of Job-but it had been a dreary task! Confronted in this
way with the claims of Christ, however, I decided about 11
o'clock one night to pray "until something happened." I
had no idea what I might expect to happen. For about an hour I
struggled in vain to form some kind of coherent prayer. Then
about midnight I became aware of a presence and I found myself
saying to some unknown person what Jacob had said when wrestling
with the angel at Peniel: "Unless you bless me, I will not let you go"
(Genesis 32:26).

I repeated these words several times with increasing emphasis:
"I will not let you go, I will not let you go..." Then
I began to say to the same unknown person, "Make me love you
more and more". When I got to these last words, I again
began to repeat them; "more and more and more..." At
this point an invisible power came down over me and I found
myself on my back on the floor, with my arms in the air, still
saying, "more and more and more...."

After a while my words changed to deep sobbing which rose up
from my belly through my lips, shaking my whole body
convulsively. The sobs did not proceed out of anything in my
conscious mind. I had no special sense of being sinful. After
about half an hour, without any act of my volition, the sobbing
changed to laughter. I had no more conscious reason for laughing
than I had for sobbing. The laughter, like the sobbing, flowed
from my belly. At first, it was quite gentle, but it gradually
became louder and louder. I had the impression that I was being
immersed in a sea of laughter that reverberated around the room.

At this point the soldier who shared the room with me woke up
to find me on my back on the floor clothed only in my underwear,
with my arms in the air, laughing uproariously. Rising up from
his mattress, he walked around me rather helplessly two or three
times, keeping at a safe distance. Finally he said, "I don't
know what to do with you. I suppose it's no good pouring water
over you." An inaudible voice within me responded,
"Even water wouldn't put this out!" However, I
remembered dimly having heard years earlier in church that men
should not blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Contrary to all my natural
reasoning, I knew that what was in me was the Holy Spirit. In
order not to offend my friend, I rolled over onto my face and
laboriously crawled to my mattress. Pulling the blanket over my
head, I eventually fell asleep, still laughing-quietly.

Next morning I awoke to an amazing, but objective, fact: I was
a totally different person. No longer did vile language flow out
of my mouth. Prayer was no longer an effort, it was as natural as
breathing. I could not even drink a glass of water without
pausing to thank God for it. At six o'clock, as was my usual
custom, I went to the pub for a drink. But when I got to the
door, my legs "locked." They would not carry me inside
the pub. I stood there having an argument with my legs. Then, to
my surprise, I realized I was no longer interested in what the
pub had to offer. I turned round and walked back to my billet.
Back in my billet once again, I opened my Bible to continue
reading. At this point, however, I discovered the most amazing
change of all. Overnight the Bible had become a completely new
book. It was as if there were only two persons in the
universe-God and me. The Bible was God speaking directly and
personally to me. This has never changed, and it is equally true
of the Old Testament and the New.

I opened by chance at Psalm 126:1, 2: "When the Lord
turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter..." (KJV). At
that point I paused, "That's exactly what happened to
me," I thought. "It wasn't I who was laughing. My mouth
was being filled with laughter from some other source!" Upon
further reflection, I saw that this strange, supernatural
laughter was the way that God's people expressed their joy and
excitement at being delivered from captivity. Turning back to Job
I came across another passage that apparently referred to the
same strange phenomenon: "Behold, God will not cast away
a perfect man.... Till He fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy
lips with shouting for joy" (Job 8:20, 21 KJV Margin)

In this case, too, I saw that the laughter did not proceed
from a person's own will, but actually from God Himself.
Furthermore, it was a response to the assurance of "not
being cast away"-that is, of God's acceptance. As I read on
into the Psalms, I made a further discovery: God Himself laughs.
Furthermore, God's laughter is not-as we in the West think of
it-a reaction to something comical. It is the expression of total
triumph over His enemies. When earth's rulers decide to reject
God's government, what is God's response? "He that
sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in
derision" (Psalm 2:4 KJV).

Again, when the wicked plots against the righteous, God's
reaction is the same: "The Lord shall laugh at him: for
he seeth that his day is coming" (Psalm 37:13 KJV).
Psalm 59 opens with a vivid description of the evil activities of
unregenerate men, but once more the Lord responds in the same
way: "But thou, 0 Lord, shalt laugh at them: thou shalt
have all the heathen in derision" (Psalm 59:8 KJV). When
the righteous see God's inexorable judgment on the wicked, it is
natural that they, too, should respond in the same way as God
Himself. "The righteous shall see, and fear, and shall
laugh at him" (Psalm 52:6 KJV).

There was another area, too, in which the Bible shed its light
on all that had been happening to me. I came to see the identity
of the person I had been asking to bless me. It was Jesus of
Nazareth-the same person whom Jacob had encountered at Peniel.
Jacob had encountered Him before His incarnation; I had
encountered Him after His resurrection. I could find no other way
to explain the related passages of scripture. The person whom
Jacob encountered was both a man and God-and also an angel, that
is, a messenger from God to man. (See Genesis 32:24­30, Hosea
12:3­4) There is only one person in the universe who answers to
that description, the one who came to earth in human form as
Jesus of Nazareth.

One evening about ten days after my first encounter with the
Lord, I was lying on my back on my mattress in the billet and I
began to speak an unfamiliar language that sounded to me like
Chinese. Once again, I dimly recalled something I had heard in
church about "speaking with other tongues." I knew it
was connected somehow with the day of Pentecost. At first I spoke
timidly and hesitantly, but as I relaxed, the flow of words
became free and forceful.

Once again, the initiative did not come from me. I was
responding to a powerful inner force that came very specifically
like my previous laughter ­ from my belly. The following evening
I again found myself speaking an unknown language, but it was
obviously different from the language I had been speaking the
previous evening. This time I noticed that the words had a very
marked poetic rhythm. After a few moments of silence, I began to
speak in English, but the words were not of my choosing, and
their content was on a level far above that of my own
understanding. Also, they seemed to have a rhythm similar to that
of the words that I had previously spoken in an unknown language.
I concluded that my words in English were an interpretative
rendering of what I had previously said in the unknown language.

One brief section of what I said in English remains indelibly
impressed upon my memory. In vivid imagery it outlined God's plan
for my life. Looking back over more than 50 years, I can see how
God's plan has been-and is still being-progressively worked out
in my life. In retrospect, too, I have gained a new understanding
of my initial experience of supernatural laughter. Unconventional
as it was, it proved to be the divinely appointed door through
which I entered a lifelong walk of faith. It also had the effect
of liberating me from many preconceptions of my background and
culture which could have been a barrier to my further spiritual
progress.

In Matthew 12:33 Jesus states the most decisive test that must
be applied to all forms of spiritual experience: "a tree
is known by its fruit." I have to ask myself therefore:
What has been the fruit of my strange experience? Is it possible
to give an objective answer? Yes, the fruit of that experience
has been a life converted from sin to righteousness, from
agnostic dabbling in the occult to unshakable faith in Jesus
Christ as He is revealed in the Scriptures-a life that has been
bringing forth fruit in God's Kingdom for well over 50 years.
Certainly that was no transient product of autosuggestion or of
some mere emotional extravagance.

From time to time, in the succeeding years, I
have received a renewed experience of supernatural laughter. I
have also seen other believers touched by God in a similar way,
but this has never been a main emphasis of my teaching. Almost
invariably I have found that this kind of laughter has a double
effect: it is both cleansing and exhilarating. At times it has
been accompanied by miracles of physical healing or of
deliverance from emotional conditions such as depression.

Exercising Discernment

My own experience of supernatural laughter took place about
midnight in an army billet more than 50 years ago. There now
appears to be a widespread eruption of similar manifestations
among Christian groups in many different locations. A minister
friend has told me of uproarious laughter erupting spontaneously
in Siberia among Christians who had no contact with the West.
Similar reports have come from parts of Europe.

More recently, various other unconventional manifestations
have been reported-including some that are positively bizarre. In
Britain, this new move apparently started in London, then spread
to various other areas. In the summer of 1992, while I was
ministering in Kensington Temple, my wife Ruth received a
prophetic utterance which the pastor released her to give to the
congregation. The Lord was speaking in the first person. His
message began as follows:

I am the Lord. I have decided to visit London. Welcome
Me with thanksgiving and praise. Honor Me by your godly
conduct....

Absolutely no glory shalt go to any
human being. All the glory is Mine, and I will not share
it with anyone.

There are four important points to notice.

First, the Lord declared His own Sovereign decision. It
did not depend upon the people of London fulfilling certain
conditions. Second, the Lord spoke of "visiting"
London. Probably what is taking place at present would most
correctly be described as a "visitation." It would be
premature to speak of "revival." Third, the
response that God requires from His people is "godly
conduct." Fourth, all the glory must go to the Lord.

Recently, I have received enquiries from many people-primarily
in Britain-asking how we should evaluate these new and unfamiliar
developments and how we should respond to them. Up to this time I
myself have not been directly exposed to what is taking place. I
will therefore limit myself to outlining a number of general
principles which would apply in various different situations.

First of all, we need to recognize the fact that when an
experience is unconventional-or. even extraordinary-does not
necessarily mean that it is not from God. In the Old Testament
God required His prophets to do some extraordinary things. Isaiah
had to walk naked and barefoot for three years (see Isaiah
20:1­3). Ezekiel was required to lie 390 days on his left side
and 40 days on his right side, and then to prepare his food on a
fire of cow dung (see Ezekiel 4:4­15).

In the Gospels Jesus Himself healed a deaf mute by spitting
and touching his tongue (see Mark 7:32­35). Later, He healed a
blind man by making clay from His own spittle and then smearing
it on the blind man's eyes (see John 9:6­7). Further on, in the
book of Acts, many things that took place in the early church
would be considered highly unconventional in much of today's
church. It is appropriate, therefore, to approach unusual
manifestations with caution, but not with blank, negative
skepticism.

Whenever the church moves into the realm of the supernatural,
it opens up exciting new possibilities of ministry, but it also
exposes us to new forms of danger. The Bible clearly
indicates-and church history abundantly confirms-that Satan is
fully at home in the supernatural realm and that he prepares
special traps and snares for Christians who move into this realm.
In particular, in dealing with "the last days," the
danger against which the Bible most persistently warns us is that
of deception. We are instructed to "test all things; to
hold fast that which is good" (I Thessalonians 5:21),

What sort of people do we need to be if we are to apply the
appropriate tests? The answer is in Hebrews 5:14: "But
solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained
themselves to distinguish good from evil" (NIV).

There are two requirements: First, we must continually
practice discernment in every situation that we encounter. The
old saying, "practice makes perfect," applies in the
spiritual realm as much as in the natural. Discernment must
become as much a part of our spiritual walk as prayer or church
attendance. Second, we must cultivate a diet of solid spiritual
food. A superficial acquaintance with a few familiar passages of
Scripture is not enough. We must build a solid foundation of the
great central doctrines of the Christian faith and learn how they
apply to the various situations we encounter. Being a Christian
is a full time job!

One critical area for discernment is the division between that
which is spiritual and that which is soulish. Unfortunately, for
many English readers the reality of this division is obscured by
inconsistencies in translation from the original Greek. The Greek
word for "spiritual" is pneumatikos formed
directly from pneuma, the word for "spirit."
Exactly corresponding, the Greek word for "soulish" is psuchikos,
formed directly from psuche, the word for
"soul."

In English, pneumatikos is always translated
"spiritual." Correspondingly, the natural translation
for psuchikos would be "soulish." But since this
is not a normal English word, various other words are used­e.g.
"natural," or "carnal," or
"worldly," or "sensual." The problem is that
these different translations give the impression that different
Greek words are used. They tend to obscure two facts: First, that
soulish is an important and distinctive New Testament concept.
Second, that the soulish and the spiritual are often in conflict
with one another.

The soul is the area in which man's natural reason and
emotions function. This is quite different from the way that
man's regenerated spirit is designed to function. The
contrast-and in fact, the opposition-between the two is clearly
brought out in I Corinthians 2:14, 15:

But the natural [soulish] man does not receive the
things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to
him; nor can he know them, be cause they are spiritually
discerned.

But he who is spiritual judges all
things

The conclusion is clear. Both the spiritual and the soulish
man are found among the people of God. The spiritual man is at
home in the things of the Holy Spirit and responds appropriately
to them. On the other hand, the soulish man cannot apprehend the
things of the Holy Spirit, but by his reaction distorts and
debases them. The only instrument sharp enough and sensitive
enough to distinguish between the spiritual and the soulish is
the word of God.

For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper
than any two­edged sword, piercing even to the division
of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart
(Hebrews 4:12).

This is why correct discernment is possible only for
Christians who have become mature through regular feeding on the
"solid food" of Scripture. The failure to distinguish
between the spiritual and the soulish can have disastrous
consequences. Speaking of a certain kind of wisdom found among
Christians, James says:

This wisdom does not descend from above, but is
earthly [on the earthly plane], sensual [soulish],
demonic (James 3:15).

James points out three stages in a disastrous decline. When
Christians move out of the realm of the truly spiritual and
descend to the earthly, it is then all too easy to move from that
to the soulish, and from the soulish to the demonic. Experiences
or manifestations which were initially spiritual become an open
door for the activity of demons. All too often, however,
Christians do not realize that they have passed from the realm of
the spiritual through the soulish to the demonic.

Here is one example. Exuberant, hilarious joy can be a
precious work of the Holy Spirit. God is delighted when His
people delight themselves in Him. He loves a hilarious giver (see
II Corinthians 9:7). But sometimes Christians can take their eyes
off the Lord and begin to focus on their own subjective
experiences. Their goal becomes their own personal enjoyment and
their worship becomes a form of entertainment. In the end, true
joy is replaced by frivolity and flippancy.

If we take Jesus as our pattern, however, we can find no trace
of frivolity or flippancy in Him. Throughout His earthly life He
never lost sight of the purpose for which He had come to earth:
to save sinful men and women from the eternal agony of the lake
of fire. All His teaching was permeated with the solemnity of
eternal issues. He wept and He groaned, but He never jested The
same seriousness should permeate all that we do as Christians-and
never more than when we are worshipping our Savior.

When our religion becomes play, we are on the verge of
idolatry. It was said of the Israelites at the foot of Mount
Sinai that "the people sat down to eat and to drink, and
rose up to play" (Exodus 32:6). They had forgotten the
awe­inspiring words that they had heard there from the mouth of
God Himself. Their worship became a form of play, and the next
stage was demonic-the worship of the golden calf. If our worship
takes on the character of play, the result will be no less
serious for us today.

Another way that the soulish nature expresses itself is in
putting human leaders in a place that is reserved for Jesus
alone. It is right to express gratitude and appreciation to human
ministers who have helped us, but never to offer them a kind of
soulish adulation that borders on idolatry. Years ago I knew a
godly and successful pastor in Sweden who had built the largest
Pentecostal church in Europe at that time From time to time he
would say to his congregation, "Please don't put me on a
pedestal-because if you do, God will have to let me fall."
In recent years we have seen a whole succession of charismatic
personalities who have ended in disaster for the simple reason
that they allowed their followers to put them on a pedestal. The
Lord is a jealous God. He has said, "I will not give My
glory to another" (Isaiah 48:11).

Another danger that threatens those who minister in the
supernatural realm is the temptation to use spiritual gifts to
manipulate or exploit or dominate people. At one period in my
ministry I found myself casting spirits of witchcraft out of
church­going people. Eventually I asked the Lord to show me the
true nature of witchcraft. I believe that the Lord gave me the
following definition: Witchcraft is the attempt to control
people and get them to do what you want by the use of any spirit
that is not the Holy Spirit.

After I had digested this, the Lord added: And if anyone
has a spirit that he can use, it is not the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Spirit is God, and no one uses God. Today, I tremble
inwardly when I see or hear of a person who claims that he has
spiritual gifts which he is free to use just as he pleases. It is
surely no accident that some of those who have made such claims
have ended in serious doctrinal error. I have given above three
examples of dangers that result from confusing the soulish with
the spiritual, but more could be added. What is important, is to
cultivate a sensitivity to this issue, so that we are not
deceived into accepting the soulish as if it were spiritual.

Paul wrote to the Philippian Christians:

And this I pray that your love may abound in true knowledge
and discernment so that you may distinguish between the things
which differ, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day
of Christ. (Philippians 1:9,10 NAS Margin).

This is a prayer that we especially need to pray at this time,
for ourselves and for one another. In Matthew 7:16 Jesus gives a
test to be applied to all ministries: "You shall know
them by their fruits." Then in verses 17 and 18 He goes
on to make a more specific application: "Even so, every
good tree bears good fruit but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good
tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good
fruit."

We need to make a practical application of this teaching of
Jesus. Whenever we encounter bad fruit, we must recognize that it
was produced by a bad tree. Therefore we need to discern and deal
with the bad tree that produced the bad fruit. But we need to go
further. We need to recognize the kind of soil that produces bad
trees: it is pride. It was pride that caused Satan's
downfall from heaven, and pride is the primary weapon that he
uses to bring about the downfall of humanity. Therefore the only
sure safeguard against deception and error is to cultivate
humility.

Here again, Jesus is our pattern for self­humbling. In
Philippians 2:5­8 Paul traces the seven successive downward
steps that took Jesus from a place of equality with God to the
death of a criminal on a cross. Then he continues: "Therefore,
God also has highly exalted Him...." Notice the
significance of the "Therefore." Jesus was not exalted
because He was a favorite Son. He was exalted because He had
fulfilled the condition for being exalted-He had humbled Himself.

In Luke 14:11 Jesus affirms this as a general principle that
applies throughout the universe: "For whoever exalts
himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
exalted." God leaves it to each one of us to make our
own decision. Shall we exalt ourselves and be abased? Or shall we
humble ourselves and be exalted? If we make the right decision,
we can move forward confidently into all that God is doing by His
Holy Spirit, without fear of being deceived or going into error.

Unfortunately, however, Christians sometimes interpret some
form of supernatural manifestation they have received as a badge
of special spirituality. They tend to see themselves as being on
a higher spiritual level than others who have not received a
similar experience. The end result could be yet another tragic
division in the Body of Christ between those who have had a
certain kind of supernatural experience and those who have not.

Early in this century something similar
resulted from the restoration of the gift of tongues to God's
people. Christians were divided between those who spoke in
tongues and those who did not. By the mercy of God this
particular division is now on the way to being healed. Let us
pray that it will not be succeeded by a fresh division over some
other supernatural manifestation.

The Fruit We Should Look For

I have been emphasizing the principle that "a tree is
known by its fruit." Logically, therefore, in evaluating the
current move in the church, we should ask: If this move is from
God, what kind of fruits should we look for? In reply, I would
suggest five main kinds of fruit that would authenticate the
present move.

1. The Fruit of Repentance

All through the New Testament the first thing that God
demanded was not faith, but repentance. John the Baptist prepared
the way for Jesus by calling for repentance (see Matthew 3:2).
When religious people came to him for baptism, he demanded that
they first produce in their lives the fruits of repentance (see
Matthew 3:7­8).

The first word that Jesus preached was, "Repent"
(see Mark 1:15). He told the multitudes "Unless you
repent, you will perish" (Luke 13:3­5). After His
resurrection He told His disciples that repentance, first, and
then forgiveness of sins should be preached to all nations (see
Luke 24:47). On the day of Pentecost the first demand that Peter
made of the convicted, but unconverted, multitude was
"repent"- then be baptized. (Acts 2:38)

Speaking to the people of Athens, Paul said, "God now
commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). Throughout
his ministry he required, first repentance toward God, then faith
toward Christ. (see Acts 20:21) True repentance is not an
emotion, but a decision of the will-a decision to turn away from
all sin and unrighteousness and to submit unreservedly to the
Lordship of Jesus.

Repentance is the first of the six foundation doctrines listed
in Hebrews 6:1­2. Those who have not truly repented can never
have a solid foundation for their lives as Christians. Over the
years I have counseled hundreds of Christians with various
problems in their lives. As a result, I have concluded that at
least 50 per cent of the problems in the lives of Christians are
due to one simple fact: they have never truly repented.

I believe that a renewed emphasis on repentance is the most
urgent need of the contemporary church in the West. To be
effective, any move in the church must deal with this issue.

2. Respect for Scripture

A second decisive factor in our lives as Christians is our
attitude to Scripture. Jesus called the Scripture "the word
of God," and He set His personal seal upon it by five simple
words: "the Scripture cannot be broken" (John
10:35). No amount of "higher criticism" can set
aside the plain meaning of these words. If we believe in Jesus
then we believe in the Bible. If we do not believe in the Bible,
then we do not believe in Jesus.

In Isaiah 66:2 the Lord says: "This is the one I
esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at
my word" (NIV). God here combines repentance-a humble
and contrite spirit-with faith in His word.

Why should we tremble at God's word? First, because it is the
way that God the Father and God the Son come to us and make their
home with us (see John 14:23). Second, because God's word will
one day be our judge (see John 12:48). From creation onwards, God
has worked through two main agents: His word and His Spirit.
First, the Spirit of God moved: then God's word went forth (see
Genesis 1:2, 3). The result was creation. Ever since then the
Spirit and the word have always worked together in harmony.
Anything that the Spirit does harmonizes with what the word says.
Furthermore, all Scripture is inspired by His Holy Spirit and He
never contradicts Himself (see II Timothy 3:16). This means that
every kind of spiritual manifestation must be tested by this
standard: Is it in harmony with Scripture? If so, we can receive
it. If not, we must reject it.

3. Exaltation of Jesus

In John 16:13, 14 Jesus promised His disciples, "When
He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all
truth.... He will glorify Me...." Jesus here reveals two
important facts about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. First of
all, His supreme function is to glorify Jesus. This provides an
authoritative test of any spiritual manifestation. Does it focus
our attention on Jesus? Does it exalt Jesus?

As soon as human personalities are allowed to take the center
of the stage, the Holy Spirit begins to withdraw. The exaltation
of human personalities has many times quenched what was
originally a genuine move of the Holy Spirit. Then we need to
notice that Jesus is careful to emphasize that the Holy Spirit is
not an "it" but a "He." When people begin to
explain spiritual experience in terms of getting "it,"
it can easily happen that they get the wrong "it."
Jesus is a person and the Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy
Spirit, as a person, draws believers together around the person
of Jesus. When we make a doctrine or an experience the focus of
our gathering, we are spiritually "off center."

4. Love for Our Fellow Christians

In John 13:35 Jesus told His followers, "By this all
will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one
another." In I Timothy 1:5 Paul said, "The goal
of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good
conscience and sincere faith" (NAS). Any form of
religious activity that does not produce this result, he
dismissed as "fruitless discussion."

In I Corinthians 13:2, Paul applied this test to himself: "If
I have all the spiritual gifts of power and of revelation, but
have not love, I am nothing." Before we apply this test
to others, we need to do the same as Paul and apply it to
ourselves. We each need to ask: Has my faith made me a loving
person? Then-and only then-can we apply this test to the present
move in the church. Is it producing Christians who sincerely love
one another-regardless of denominational labels? Will it cause
the unbelievers to say of these people what the world said of the
early church; "See how these Christians love one
another?"

5. Loving Concern for the Unreached

In John 4:35, Jesus told His disciples, "Lift up your
eyes and look at the fields, for they are white already for
harvest." If those words were true even in the time of
Jesus, they are certainly more true today. I have been privileged
to travel and minister in many nations and I have formed one firm
conclusion: We are living in the harvest hour!

Yet, alas, many Christians, who could be working in the
harvest fields of the world, are caught in a snare of
materialistic self­centeredness. I believe that any genuine move
of the Holy Spirit will result in multitudes of new laborers
being thrust forth into the world's harvest fields. Otherwise it
does not truly reflect the heart of God.

If a significant number of Christians in the current move
successfully pass all, or most, of the five tests outlined above,
then it is safe to conclude that this is, essentially, a move of
God. This does not mean that everyone or everything in it is
faultless. God has no faultless people to work with. It is
amazing what He can do with weak and fallible people who are
truly surrendered to Him.

Source: International Revival Network: www.openheaven.com.
Copyright Derek Prince Ministries, used with permission
May be freely copied provided source and/or copyrights are included with the
text.